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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EBEN T. STARR, OF NEIV YORK, N. Y.

DIVISION BETWEEN THE TUBES OF FLEXIBLE BOATS.

Specification of Letters Patent, No. 6,863, dated April 17, 1849.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, EBEN T. STARR, of NewYork, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented anew and useful Boat Constructed of Flexible Materials; and I do herebydeclare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of thesame, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of thisspecification, in which- Figure l is a perspective view. Fig. 2 is alongitudinal section. Fig. 3 is a cross section. Fig. 4 is a sectionshowing scupper and seats.

The character of my invention consists in the Iconstruction of a perfectboat of flexible water proof cloth, without the aid of wood or any otherrigid material for framing, flooring, or bracing, so that when the saidboat is not in use it may be folded and packed in a convenient form fortransportation, and when required for use, may be resolved into a boat,with bottom, bow, sides, stern and seats, complete in` every respect, bymere inflation, having all the stiffness and rigidity required fortransporting any weight, it may have the capacity to carry. Thiscomplete formation of a boat without the aid of wood, iron, or any otherrigid material, forms the features of novelty of my invention.

I am aware that cylinders of flexible cloth have been used to form thefloating parts upon which to construct rafts; I also know of the use ofwaterproof cloth insteadn of planks, stretched over a rigid frame, andthus forming a boat; but I know of no means hitherto employed forforming a boat of flexible material which shall have all the requisitestiffness, strength, and sailing qualities, without the aid of suchrigid framing, in some shape or other.

The method I use in making my boat, is to provide a suitable quantity ofwater proof cloth; prepared india rubber cloth I prefer; with this Iform between two surfaces a series of air cells, of which the bottom andsides of the boat shall be composed; the bottom cells run longitudinalas seen at (a) in the section of Fig. 2, and which would have theappearance, if cut in cross section, as seen in Fig. 3 at letter Thedivision being made by introducing a webbing as rep resented; thiswebbing divides the bottom in a series of air tight compartments; sothat if by chance any one or more of said compartments should be cut ortorn, no danger would ensue, the buoyancy remaining in the rest beingsufficient. Upon a bottom of this character, I next build up the sides,bow, and stern in like manner, so that there shall be an interior spacewhen divided into distinct compartments by cloth division as in the casewith the bottom, and as shown at (c, c, c, c).

rIhe material I have described as used by me in the construction of myinvention is flexible but not elastic, or at least elastic in a veryslight degree; therefore some danger might arise to the permanency ofthe boat from expansion of the air in the compartments. To remedy thisdanger in boats used in situations where this is likely to occur, Iintroduce instead of the non-elastic webbing for making the divisions (cc and o b), an elastic material, such as sheet india rubber, insufficient quantity to insure the expansion required for any increase inthe volume of the air contained within.

The compartments may be inflated sepa rately or together by the tubevalves y(el (l). The holes seen in the section Fig. 4 at (e c e c) arescuppers of cloth placed around the sides near the bottom in sufficientnumber, to relieve the boat of water, in the case of shipping seas. Therings i and c) are for the purpose of strapping down seats, composed ofair tight cloth, which when inflated compose holsters, suitable for thatpurpose, as seen at (la 7c). At (m m) are straps to act as row-locks,for the oars to work in.

I do not claim arranging or lashing together a series of inflatedcylinders com- 4 posed of flexible water proof material to form a raftor boat, neither do I claim the lashing of such cylinders around the gunwale or sides of a boat to insure buoyancy; nor do I claim forming aboat by stretching waterproof cloth or sheets of india rubber over aninflated frame resembling the ribs of such, or any attachment of suchsub stances to a frame for these purposes; but

What I claim' as new and of my own invention and desire to secure byLetters Patent is- Making the interior divisions (b Z) and c c) (whichto a certain extent confine the webs or Waterproof material forming theouter and inner surfaces of the boat) of some elastic substance, such assheet incliwrulober to allow of the expansion of the air contained inthe compartments Whenever the same shall occur from the exposure of theboat to a higher temperature than it was in,

at the time of its inflation, the Whole construction anel operationbeing substantially as described and set forth herein.

EBEN T. STARR.

nWitnesses:

J. P. PmssoN, J. L. KINGSLEY.

